Guest Blog: Aging in Place Moving from Reactive to Proactive
The following is a guest blog from Anthony Cirillo:
In a recent commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic physician Steven Landers noted that care models that bring high-quality care to the home via computer or mobile device might prevail over healthcare facilities. He notes that home care helps avoid the complications associated with treatment in hospitals and nursing homes and says that the population prefers it.
The MetLife Report on Aging in Place 2.0 examines the issue of aging in place in detail visioning a model in which "design, equipment, and comprehensive services are integrated into a dynamic and efficient monitoring and management system."
The problem with aging in place today is that it is often a reactionary process where disparate services, each paid for differently, are cobbled together for episodic care that treats the symptoms and not the overall issue. There is no system of organization. In fact the best system of coordinated care is in nursing homes where MetLife notes the tendency is to provide too many services at too large a cost. And in the community, people fall through the cracks and find it hard to arrange and manage services.
MetLife envisions aging in place as a proactive process. It starts with individuals planning to age in place. Take me at 53. We want to redo our bathroom this year. Practicing what I preach I convinced my wife that we should build the bathroom for aging in place. Walk-in shower with seat. Grab bars. Good lighting.
Each lifestyle progression in aging spells opportunities and occupations for aging service providers. These include:
- Home design, retrofitting, and maintenance for aging in place
- Health care technology solutions provider
- Non-medical home care
- Senior transport
- Adult day care and adult medical day care
- Skilled home health care
- Hospice and palliative care
We marketers talk about brand extensions, ways to move your brand and services into other naturally complementary services. We already see some movement where home health companies are buying hospice, etc. But no one is stepping up in terms of the business of proactive aging.
Just like Apple is not a computer company but a lifestyle company, a nursing home provider can move to become an aging lifestyles company.
- Start a company that helps people prepare for aging in place.
- Employ or contract with architects and home contractors who can retrofit homes.
- Offer home-technology solutions that can monitor health and behavior.
- Start a senior transport service with GPS-enabled vans that alert seniors when you are near their home or stop so they don't have to stand in the cold.
If only for the sake of survival (as Medicaid horror stories abound) savvy nursing home operators will realize the business they are really in and look to extend services both to generate revenue and to own the field of active aging. It's time to break out of the silos.
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is the about.com expert in assisted living. A speaker, health care consultant, senior advocate and blogger, he consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures?"
Sign up to attend Anthony's free webinar on marketing, Wednesday, April 13 at 1:00 ET.